Our Rankings use proprietary and consistent measurement methodology to allow apples-to-apples comparison of podcast audience sizes. Read About the Podcast Industry Audience Rankings to learn more about how the rankings are compiled.

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top publishers

Podcast Industry Ranking Highlights

Top 10 Podcast Publishers

US Audience: January 2018

Rank

Podcast Publisher

US Unique Monthly Audience

Global Unique Streams & Downloads

Active Shows

1

NPR

16,370,000

121,490,000

42

2

WNYC Studios

7,429,000

38,253,000

48

3

HowStuffWorks

6,243,000

53,856,000

19

4

PRX

5,607,000

45,612,000

35

5

This American Life/Serial

5,440,000

23,316,000

3

6

iHeartMedia

4,834,000

38,674,000

612*

7

ESPN

4,315,000

32,835,000

82

8

New York Times

4,161,000

27,792,000

8

9

Wondery

3,736,000

21,188,000

59

10

American Public Media

1,589,000

9,158,000

37

Total mobile and desktop US podcast audience.

Unique Monthly Audience:

Total of unique audience members who stream or download publisher's podcast content across all shows they produce.

Unique Streams & Downloads:

Total unique streams and downloads of podcast content for the month across all shows produced by publisher.

Active Shows:

Count of shows produced by publisher and measured by Podtrac which contribute to the totals in the Ranking.

Podcast Publisher:

An entity or individual which owns, creates and publishes podcasts.

Note: Ranking data only includes publishers that participate in Podtrac measurement for the full month for which the ranking is being released.

*Does not include shows being distributed via the iHeart webplayer on iHeart.com and affiliate sites. iHeart is working on a solution to measure those shows with Podtrac.

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Top podcasts

Podcast Industry Ranking

Top 20 Podcasts

US Audience: JANUARY 2018

Rank

Podcast

Publisher

1

This American Life

This American Life/Serial

2

The Daily

The New York Times

3

RadioLab

WNYC Studios

4

Up First

NPR

5

Stuff You Should Know

HowStuffWorks

6

Planet Money

NPR

7

Freakonomics

WNYC Studios

8

TED Radio Hour

NPR

9

Fresh Air

NPR

10

The Joe Rogan Experience*

Joe Rogan

11

Hidden Brain

NPR

12

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

NPR

13

99% Invisible

PRX

14

NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

15

How I Built This

NPR

16

Atlanta Monster

HowStuffWorks

17

Pod Save America*

Crooked Media

18

The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe

MRW Productions

19

The Moth

PRX

20

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

Dan Carlin

Ranking is based on Podtrac measurement data for Unique Monthly Audience for shows that measure with Podtrac. Shows on the Ranking which do not measure with Podtrac are denoted with an asterisk (*). Ranking of these shows is determined by a proprietary Podtrac algorithm which uses publicly available data.

Podtrac measurement is free to use by any podcast. Visit Podtrac.com for more information.

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ABOUT THE PODCAST INDUSTRY AUDIENCE RANKINGS

WHAT METRIC ARE THE RANKINGS BASED ON?

Podtrac’s monthly rankings are based on U.S. Unique Monthly Audience (UMA). UMA is a count of individual audience members for a given month.

For the monthly Top Publishers Ranking, UMA is the number of audience members who listen to any shows published by a given publisher in that month. Individuals may listen to multiple shows or multiple episodes of shows from a publisher in a month, but they are only counted once in the UMA metric.

For the monthly Top Podcasts Ranking, UMA is the number of audience members who listened to the show in the given month. Individuals may listen to multiple episodes of a podcast in a month but are only counted once in the UMA metric.

Which PUblishers and podcasts are INCLUDED IN THE RANKINGs?

The Podcast Industry Audience Ranking of the Top 10 Publishers includes producers and publishers who create, own and distribute podcasts. Groups that do not produce content, such as ad and content networks, are not included in our ranking. In order for a publisher to be considered for inclusion in the ranking, they must use the Podtrac measurement system for their shows, and Podtrac must have at least 30 days of data for the publisher.

The Podcast Industry Audience Ranking of the Top 20 Podcasts is a comprehensive ranking of top podcasts. It includes both shows which measure with Podtrac and those which do not. Shows which do not measure with Podtrac are denoted with an asterisk (*) on the report. Ranking of these shows is determined by a proprietary Podtrac algorithm which uses publicly available data.

How Does Podtrac Define "Podcast?"

“A podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files which a user can download and listen to. It is often available for subscription, so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user’s own local computer, mobile application, or portable media player.”

Podtrac makes no judgements based on non-technical factors such as type of content or episode length.

IS THERE A FEE FOR PUBLISHERS TO PARTICIPATE?

Use of the Podtrac measurement system and inclusion in the Industry Audience Ranking reports is free to all publishers. Use of Podtrac measurement ensures consideration for the Top Publisher Ranking and assures the most accurate representation of a show’s ranking for the Top Podcasts Ranking.

HOW DOES THE PODTRAC PODCAST RANKING COMPARE TO THE ITUNES PODCAST RANKING?

Podtrac's ranking of top podcasts is based on the unique U.S. monthly audience of each show. This ranking by audience size is useful to advertisers and those in the podcast industry who want to know which shows achieved the largest US audience during the previous month. iTunes ranks podcasts based on inputs such as the volume of recent subscriptions. The iTunes rankings are useful to podcast listeners who want to discover new and trending podcasts.

HOW DOES MY SHOW RANK?

Our first publisher ranking is of the Top 10 Publishers and our first podcast ranking is of the Top 20 Podcasts. We’ll be expanding those rankings in the coming months. To be considered for the Top Publishers Ranking and to be assured of the most accurate representation of your show on the Top Podcasts Ranking, register with Podtrac and start using the free Podtrac Measurement Service.

WHAT'S THE UNIQUE MONTHLY AUDIENCE COUNT FOR MY PODCAST?

The unique monthly audience count per show is now available on the Podtrac Publisher Dashboard for all registered publishers with at least one podcast with more than 1,000 unique global audience members. By registering for the free Podtrac Measurement System, you'll have access to your show's unique monthly audience as soon as your show reaches this audience size.

I thought Serial or other podcasts would be ranked higher in the top podcast ranking

Some podcasts like Serial publish on a seasonal schedule which results in their unique monthly audience being larger during the "season" (months when they post new episodes). Each Top Podcast Ranking is based on the audience counts achieved during the most recent month only.

Can I get a report of the Unique Monthly Audience numbers for the Podcasts on the ranking?

Podtrac does not publish the unique monthly audience or download numbers for individual shows. If you are an advertiser interested in any of the shows on the Ranking, contact the show publisher and ask for their unique monthly audience metric, or visit AuthenticShows.com to request a media plan for your brand.

What other ranking reports are coming up?

We currently publish a Top 10 Publishers Ranking and a Top 20 Podcasts Ranking. Each ranking is updated monthly. We will be expanding both of these rankings to include more publishers and shows in the coming months.

How can I keep up to date on the current Rankings?

Be sure to subscribe to the Podtrac Blog to keep up to date on the Podcast Industry Audience rankings as they are published each month.